On November 4, residents of Newcastle in the Hunter region of New South Wales celebrated the entry into force of the Paris Agreement. Hundreds of people woke up early and formed a high water tide mark line to indicate where sea level rise may reach by 2100. “Hundreds of people have come together in Newcastle this morning in response to the governments failure to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement, which comes into force today. The group formed a blue line signifying the predicted high tide for Newcastle in 2100 and are calling on the federal government to ratify the agreement and start phasing out fossil fuels as a matter of […]

Blue carbon is part of the solution to tackle climate change. So why aren’t we talking about it far more? Blue carbon refers to the carbon sequestration potential of coastal ecosystems: that zone reaching from just above the high tide mark to the coastal shallows. It includes salt marsh, mangroves and seagrass meadow ecosystems. We need to take care and nurture our coastal ecosystems as they can play a vital role in bio-sequestration of carbon at rates far in excess of forests and soil carbon farming. Biologists working with seagrasses met to present papers and discuss scientific practices at the 12th International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW) (Conference website) in Wales […]

The Andrews Victorian state government has been successful with the sale of the Port of Melbourne for $9.7 billion, an election promise. The government had been expecting around $7 billion for the asset. Technically, its not a sale, but a 50 year lease of the port’s commercial operations. The long term lease of Australia’s largest port facilities had bipartisan support, with the State Liberal Party, when in power, doing much of the initial paperwork to bring about the privatisation. The new owners of the Port of Melbourne are the Lonsdale consortium which includes the Queensland Investment Corporation, the Future Fund, GIP and OMERS. This is another public asset sale deriving […]

Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has made a joke of Pacific Nations facing rising sea levels due to climate change. The Australian Prime Minister, recently returned from meeting with Pacific Island Nations in Port Moresby, laughed at the joke, before Social Services Minister Scott Morrison pointed out the boom microphone overhead. [View the story “#SeaLevelRise comment engulfs Dutton, Abbott in Pacific #climate storm” on Storify]